The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to digital video content authoring.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
In conjunction with information handling systems, the proliferation of analog and digital video cameras has enabled consumers to collect substantial amounts of video footage. The video is typically captured and stored in a tape format that usually is not the same as that of standard consumer video cassette recorder/players (VCRs). For example, analog and digital video cameras support formats such as DV, 8 mm or cVHS tape formats, whereas VCRs support VHS.
One problem that this presents is that it creates several obstacles for viewing, sharing, and/or archiving the video footage. For casual viewing, one needs to temporarily connect the camera to a television. For sharing with friends and family or archiving purposes, the video needs to be transformed to some other media, such as VHS tape.
One solution that solves several of the problems discussed above is the transfer of video footage to an optical medium. Transferring video footage to an optical medium can be accomplished either in a standalone consumer environment via a dedicated optical recorder or as part of a personal computer setup with the appropriate software and recordable optical drive.
In the case of the dedicated consumer optical recorder, efficiency, video quality and content degradation issues are addressed, as well as, solving the primary issue of video sharing. However, disadvantages that the dedicated consumer optical recorder solution presents are the relative high cost and lack of control of the video CD creation process. In addition, a Video CD created by a dedicated consumer optical recorder only offers sequential access to the video footage similar to magnetic tape.
In the case of a personal computer setup, video quality and content degradation issues are of concern. A personal computer setup is not as efficient as in the case of the standalone recorder because two distinct steps are required: one step for importing the video into the PC and another for converting the video into the appropriate format for Video CD. Advantages of the PC solution include the relative low cost, control of the Video CD creation process and the ability to allow for random access of the video via chapter points. However, disadvantages of the PC solution are the complexity and time inefficiency of Video CD creation applications.
Although transforming the video to another media is a seemingly acceptable solution, it has several disadvantages. The tape transfer process is time consuming, expensive and the final product does not preserve video quality due to analog video transfer generation loss as well as transient magnetic degradation.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a method and apparatus for solving the problem of sharing video content absent the disadvantages found in the prior methods discussed above.